Old cheapy acoustic into a Dobro?

[scottboyher]

Old cheapy acoustic into a Dobro? Has anyone tried to do this with any success. Maybe just raise the nut and bridge?

 

[Track Rat]

If you just want to play it in your lap you only have to raise the nut. I used to have this old "U" shaped gismo that would slip over the nut and would raise the action about 1/4" or so. It was made by Nick Manoloff.

 

[lpdeluxe]

I looked into doing this several (um, 30?) years ago to a Ventura flattop I got for $35 and finally gave up. I ended up using a raised nut and a single-coil steel pickup in the soundhole. I have recordings of it and it sounded great through an amp. (What became of the guitar? After I got a REAL Dobro I had a luthier build a new fine spruce top for it to replace the plywood, and I still have the guitar -- in fact, I play it regularly.)

You could get the parts from stewmac.com but it would take some work to get it right. Poorly setup Dobros are noisy! I have to periodically disassemble mine and tighten everything up. Otherwise the rattles are louder than the notes. The rim of a Dobro resonator rests on the edge of a round hole cut in the top, underneath which is a round laminated maple "well" with holes in it. This would have to be constructed to fit your guitar. If you used a biscuit bridge resonator you wouldn't need the well, but you wouldn't get the Dobro sound, either. Stewmac has both kinds, and they are excellent quality. The drawback will be if your top won't support all the weight. Note that a resonator uses a banjo-style tailpiece, and that has to fit, also.

I think I'd go with the raised nut.

Another issue is the neck set: will the strings be in the right place for useable action? If you play with a steel it's no problem, but fingerstyle needs to have realistic playability.

 

[JR#97]

I've done the raised thing and it works great. Dont' forget to use metal fingerpicks and a thumbpick to get that 'metallic' sound. A heavy slide is better than the kind you slip over your finger.

 

[scottboyher]

I've done the raised thing and it works great. Dont' forget to use metal fingerpicks and a thumbpick to get that 'metallic' sound. A heavy slide is better than the kind you slip over your finger.

So you just raised the action at the nut and thats all it took to get close to a dobro sound? Or is there other mods that have to be done?

I believe I am going to try it!

 

[lpdeluxe]

Or is [sic] there other mods that have to be done?

Go for it. 80% of the sound of the Dobro is the performer.

 

[notCardio]

Thank you, JR#97!

I've done the raised thing and it works great. Dont' forget to use metal fingerpicks and a thumbpick to get that 'metallic' sound. A heavy slide is better than the kind you slip over your finger.

I've been looking at dobros, and wondering why none of them, including real Dobro dobros, sounded like dobros. Fingerpicks! Duh!

Actually, the only one I've found that really sounds like a dobro is a Hohner resonator. I've been reluctant to get it, because there's something about paying 350 for a Hohner that doesn't sit right with me, but hey, if that's what works, I guess I'll have to.

 

[StevenLindsey]

I made an old Yamaha 12 into a 6 string "dobro". Got the metal thing to go over the nut and a high saddle. Sounds great.

 

[lpdeluxe]

none of them, including real Dobro dobros, sounded like dobros.

This is the same problem you run into with Les Pauls: a lot of LPs don't sound the way we think an LP ought to sound. The only cure is to look until you find one. I played every Dobro that came through town to find mine...only took 3 years.

 

[Rokket]

This is the same problem you run into with Les Pauls: a lot of LPs don't sound the way we think an LP ought to sound. The only cure is to look until you find one. I played every Dobro that came through town to find mine...only took 3 years.

As far as LP's go, most people mod them after they get them, hot-rodding the pickups, things like that. I've only seen a few of them that were still configured the way they came out of the factory, and they don't sound like you think a Les Paul should sound. A friend of mine got a studio custom that sounded pretty good as is, but he wanted Slash's sound and hot-rodded it. I didn't like the tone after he got done, but he was happy, so I guess that's what counts.

 

[Rokket]

But back to the topic at hand: resonators. You mentioned that the wood wouldn't hold up to adding the metal plate, how do you get around that? Do you have to add support, or would that take away from the tone? Do you just have to deal with it? I personally wouldn't try to do it myself, because I am pretty good at woodworking (I mentioned all the woodworking tools my ex sold off when we divorced in the cave), but I don't have luthier experience. I think I would have to find a luthier to do it for me. Would it be worth it to convert a $50 Japanese acoustic that I have lying around?

 

[lpdeluxe]

...the wood wouldn't hold up to adding the metal plate...

I assume you are responding to what I posted earlier. A "real" Dobro has a fairly thick plywood top, and the "well" I mentioned sometime ago is attached around the circumference of the hole in the top and is attached to the (plywood) back as well. The resonator's rim rests on the edge of the hole in the guitar, and the arms [or legs] of the spider (that supports the bridge) rests on the lip of the resonator. A machine screw goes from the center of the bridge saddles (there are two of them) into a threaded hole in the raised center of the resonator. The whole idea is that the amplification of the strings will be confined to the resonator and that the body of the guitar is as inert as possible (given the miserly construction of wood-body Dobros). I have attached a .jpg of the spider so you'll have an idea.

A biscuit bridge has a shallower resonator, and the bridge sits on a "biscuit" on the raised portion in the middle of the resonator. As always, it can be tricky to find a resonator that gives a particular guitar useable action.

There are pictures of Dobro parts in the stewmac.com online catalog, and there are various books (such as Tom Wheeler's "Guitar Book") that show the construction of Dobros. Dobros have bolt-on necks, but they resemble the banjo variety more than the Fender. There's no reason you can't use a set-neck guitar, though. The bolt-on feature was mostly to lower production costs.

One advantage of Dobros is that you can take them apart much like a Fender Strat, say, and trade out parts and put them back together. One caveat, as I mentioned before: everything MUST fit tightly, or your resonator will be resonating with rattles instead of with notes.

 

[scottboyher]

Ok, this is an excellent topic. I purchased the nut extender and a solid metal/chrome slide. I am going to get the metal finger picks and FLY!

Do most people mic a dobro for recording or do they have pickups that sound better?

 

[Rokket]

I assume you are responding to what I posted earlier. A "real" Dobro has a fairly thick plywood top, and the "well" I mentioned sometime ago is attached around the circumference of the hole in the top and is attached to the (plywood) back as well. The resonator's rim rests on the edge of the hole in the guitar, and the arms [or legs] of the spider (that supports the bridge) rests on the lip of the resonator. A machine screw goes from the center of the bridge saddles (there are two of them) into a threaded hole in the raised center of the resonator. The whole idea is that the amplification of the strings will be confined to the resonator and that the body of the guitar is as inert as possible (given the miserly construction of wood-body Dobros). I have attached a .jpg of the spider so you'll have an idea.

A biscuit bridge has a shallower resonator, and the bridge sits on a "biscuit" on the raised portion in the middle of the resonator. As always, it can be tricky to find a resonator that gives a particular guitar useable action.

There are pictures of Dobro parts in the stewmac.com online catalog, and there are various books (such as Tom Wheeler's "Guitar Book") that show the construction of Dobros. Dobros have bolt-on necks, but they resemble the banjo variety more than the Fender. There's no reason you can't use a set-neck guitar, though. The bolt-on feature was mostly to lower production costs.

One advantage of Dobros is that you can take them apart much like a Fender Strat, say, and trade out parts and put them back together. One caveat, as I mentioned before: everything MUST fit tightly, or your resonator will be resonating with rattles instead of with notes.

Thanks for the info, lp! I guess I'd be better off buying one than trying to convert my cheapo acoustic (it's kinda thin plywood anyhow). I've always loved their tone, and I've only gotten to play around with one once, many moons ago...